Abuja, Nigeria March Distr.: GENERAL. E/ECA/COE/33/11 21 March Original: ENGLISH

Transcription

1 Annual Report 2014

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3 Distr.: GENERAL UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL Thirty-third meeting of the Committee of Experts E/ECA/COE/33/11 21 March 2014 Original: ENGLISH ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA Meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Seventh Joint Annual Meetings of the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance Abuja, Nigeria March 2014 Annual Report 2014

4 For this and other publications, please visit the ECA website at the following address: or contact United Nations Economic Commission for Africa P.O. Box 3001 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: Fax:

5 Table of Contents Introduction by the Executive Secretary...v I. Overview of economic and social conditions in Africa in A. Developments in the world economy and implications for Africa... 1 B. Economic performance in Africa in C. Need for export diversification to boost trade and sustain growth... 3 D. Innovative approaches to bridging Africa s financing gap... 4 E. Policies to achieve inclusive growth and transformative development... 4 F. Africa s growth outlook... 5 G. Conclusions... 6 II. Highlights of programme activities and results...7 A. Macroeconomic policy... 7 B. Regional integration and trade... 9 C. Innovations, technologies and management of Africa s natural resources D. Statistics E. Capacity development F. Technical cooperation G. Gender and women in development H. Subregional activities for development I. Development planning and administration J. Social development III. Issues from the subsidiary bodies of the Commission, including the intergovernmental committees of experts of the subregional offices...29 A. Organs dealing with overall development issues B. Functional and sectoral subsidiary organs of the Commission C. Meetings held during the period under review D. Introduction Annex I: Report on follow-up to the decisions and recommendations of the 2013 Joint Annual Meetings of the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance...35 iii

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7 E/ECA/COE/33/11 Introduction by the Executive Secretary Carlos Lopes United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa The present report reviews the progress made between April 2013 and March 2014 on implementing the work programme of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), with a focus on the results that have been achieved in support of the development of our member States, in the context of the recent reforms undertaken by the secretariat. The year under review was a period of progress and transformation at ECA. The year was marked by an intensification of efforts to implement the reform measures endorsed by the Commission in March It was also shaped by a process whereby African leaders defined and articulated a new vision and agenda for the continent s transformation the African Union s Agenda ECA made considerable progress in 2013 towards achieving the objectives of its reforms. Through committed leadership and a clear strategy, many aspects of the strategic vision and the reforms have now been realized. The results of this change are evident in the improved quality of the programmes, publications and services developed to meet the needs of African countries. Overall, the changes have resulted in a more purposeful organization with better-quality products and services that are delivered more effectively for greater results and impact. Following the reforms, ECA has emerged as a strong, relevant and capable entity, whose work is more focused and responds to the development priorities and needs of its member States. Its credentials, both as a regional centre of development policy and as a forum for policy dialogue, have never been better. Indeed, one of the main outcomes of the reforms, beyond the programmatic aspect, is that member States have reaffirmed a sense of ownership of ECA. ECA is here to serve member States to work for them and with them, with a creative and proactive secretariat that responds to their needs in a constantly evolving context. The reforms also enabled ECA to reinforce its support for the positive trends and developments taking place in Africa, increasing the organization s visibility and relevance. Programme performance also improved during the year, thanks to an increased focus on results. As a clear indicator of the organization s growing relevance, African Heads of State and Government have asked ECA to work with the African Union Commission and other partners to articulate the elements of the new Agenda 2063, which is intended to support the transformation agenda of the continent. The policy work and analysis carried out by ECA has proved vital to the elaboration of Africa s development goals and the setting of related targets and indicators. ECA has also made significant contributions to the formulation of the common African position on the post-2015 development agenda, which was adopted at the twenty-second ordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union this past January. ECA will continue to support the process to ensure that Africa s priorities are reflected in the global debate on the development agenda beyond Our reports and publications have attained new heights both in terms of their quality and the forthrightness of the analyses and recommendations made. The most recent Economic Report on Africa which focused on industrialization and economic transformation, and the annual report entitled Assessing Regional Integration in Africa which considered intra- African trade, addressed themes that are timely and relevant and have continued to influence policymaking in many African countries. The third edition of the African Governance Report, the theme of which was elections and the management of diversity, and the annual report on assessing progress in Africa towards the Millennium Development Goals, entitled Food Security in Africa: Issues, Challenges and Lessons, offer additional examples of how the Commission s work is responding effectively to Africa s development challenges. Of equal importance was a landmark study on domestic resource mobilization in Africa, carried out in conjunction with the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency. The study, which was requested by African Heads of State, concluded that the continent v

8 Annual Report, 2014 has ample resources to finance its development, and recommended nine instruments driven by the private sector for enhancing domestic resource mobilization in Africa. Our work on statistics has gained considerable traction in the past year, as reflected in the quality of the 2013 African Statistical Yearbook, a joint publication of ECA, the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank. The online version of the yearbook was visited by over 500,000 users in the past year alone. We are also entering an exciting phase of our work on African country profiles, which will result in a new flagship publication providing information and analysis on important social and economic trends, with a view to informing policymaking at the country level. Other important achievements of the past year include the major meetings, conferences and events organized by ECA to promote policy dialogue and consensus-building among African policymakers. The forty-sixth session of the Economic Commission for Africa, which was held jointly with the African Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance in Abidjan in March 2013, which addressed the theme Industrialization for an emerging Africa, emphasized the need for the continent to pursue commodity-based industrialization as an imperative for achieving structural transformation. Moreover, the conference concluded with the unanimous adoption of a ministerial statement in which member States made a commitment to pursue commodity-based industrialization as an imperative for achieving structural transformation. As a follow-up to the ministerial statement, ECA worked closely with the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and other partners to support the implementation of these commitments at the national, subregional and regional levels. The forty-seventh session of the Commission to be held in Abuja from 25 to 30 March 2014, will focus on the theme of Industrialization for inclusive and transformative development in Africa. The session will provide an opportunity for senior policymakers to discuss in depth and reach consensus on the policies, mechanisms and institutional requirements for accelerating industrialization for structural transformation in Africa. Other important meetings organized during the year included the Africa Regional Consultative Meeting on the Sustainable Development Goals, following Rio+20. A set of 12 goals were adopted at the meeting to reflect the main sustainable development priorities of the continent. These will feed into the work of the High-level Committee of African Heads of State on the Post-2015 Development Agenda and will inform global discussions on the topic. In the same vein, ECA organized the third annual Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa, on the theme Africa on the rise: can the opportunities from climate change spring the continent to transformative development? The conference attracted more than 700 participants, including two former Heads of State, policymakers, scientists, academics, farmers, health practitioners, journalists and representatives of women s groups. The conference provided an opportunity for Africa to refine its position on the various climate change negotiation tracks ahead of the nineteenth session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in November 2013 in Warsaw. The earlier Rio+20 conference gave us an opportunity to respond to the demands of our member States regarding a better understanding of the concept of an inclusive green economy and enhanced partnership with others. The programmatic changes have also been accompanied by changes in administrative and business processes, including the consolidation of programme planning, budgeting and evaluation into one office to enhance our focus on results. ECA has introduced a number of initiatives designed to set new business standards in areas such as recruitment; training; travel; consultancy; procedures for planning and streamlining publications, setting quality standards and improving dissemination; setting gender parity targets with regard to recruitment and promotions; its carbon footprint; staff reprofiling and training; the prioritization of capacity development; and a comprehensive set of measures for increasing IT support for the organization s activities with a view to improving their cost-effectiveness and visibility. Despite the challenges faced by ECA in recruiting and retaining competent staff, commendable progress was achieved following an aggressive recruitment campaign. A number of vital vacant posts have been filled, thereby reducing the overall vacancy rate and bringing it closer to the acceptable level of 5 per cent set by the United Nations. In addition, measures were taken to improve staff welfare and maintain a working environment that is both safe and secure. Other significant elements of the work accomplished by ECA in , a challenging period for the organization, are detailed in the following chapters. It is my hope that the information vi

9 E/ECA/COE/33/11 contained in the report will help readers to determine the usefulness, relevance, effectiveness and impact of the work of ECA. As Executive Secretary, I will ensure that transparency, accountability and results remain the guiding principles of the work of the secretariat, and that ECA continues to be of service to its member States and to respond to their needs. I am confident that member States will continue to support us in our efforts. Carlos Lopes United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa vii

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11 E/ECA/COE/33/11 CHAPTER I Overview of economic and social conditions in Africa in Africa s growth rate slowed from 5.7 per cent in 2012 to an estimated 4.0 per cent in 2013, still almost twice as high as the global average, but slightly lower than the average for developing countries. Export performance continued its post-2011 improvement in absolute terms, due mainly to rising commodity exports and a diversification of its trading partners, although low export-product diversification and high dependence on primary commodities are still major constraints on Africa s external trade. Intra-African trade remains low, largely because of high trading costs which are exacerbated by inefficiencies in customs and administrative procedures. 2. Despite the improved export performance and the fairly strong growth performance, Africa s financing gap remains large, against a backdrop where the global economic slowdown and more stringent budgetary consolidation in many donor countries are expected to affect levels of official development assistance to the continent. Africa s economic transformation therefore has to rely increasingly on domestic sources of finance, and African countries need to develop innovative approaches to development financing from both internal and external sources. A. Developments in the world economy and implications for Africa 3. Global economic growth dropped to 2.1 per cent in 2013, but this is projected to rebound to 3.0 per cent in 2014 and 3.3 per cent in 2015, owing to increased economic activity in the United States of America and the euro area, and also to stabilizing growth in most emerging economies, notably China. 4. The global unemployment rate was estimated at 6.0 per cent in 2013, and unemployment numbers are set to rise from 202 million in 2013 to 205 million in 2014, as subdued private capital flows and fiscal austerity continue to restrict investments and job creation. Global youth unemployment remains elevated, and is projected to stagnate at around 12.8 per cent until 2016, as the rebound in global growth will not be sufficient to lift depressed labour markets. 5. The global inflation rate was 2.5 per cent in 2013, down from 2.9 per cent in 2012, owing mainly to large output gaps in many economies, softening global commodity prices and insipid demand from key emerging economies. It is projected to increase to 2.7 per cent in 2014, with the forecast rebound in economic activity, although prudent monetary and fiscal policies in many countries are expected to keep it in check. 6. Key risks to the global economy include continued fiscal consolidation and austerity programmes in major developed countries, weakening global demand, financial market turbulence, and paltry growth in the euro area. 1 B. Economic performance in Africa in The continent s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate slowed from 5.7 per cent in 2012 to 4.0 per cent in 2013, against the developing economies average of 4.6 per cent (fig. 1). The slowdown was mainly due to weakened global demand following the financial and debt crisis in the euro area, sluggish growth in some emerging economies, and political instability and civil unrest in major commodity-producing countries, especially in Central and North Africa. Growth in Africa continued to benefit from relatively high commodity prices, increased trade and investment ties with emerging economies, greater domestic demand underpinned by new, urbanizing consumers with rising incomes, and public spending on infrastructure. Improved economic governance and management were mirrored in generally stable 1 World Bank (2013). World Development Indicators (database). Available at Accessed on 15 March

12 Annual Report, 2014 Figure 1: Growth in GDP, Real GDP growth rate (%) f 2015f Years World Developing economies Africa Source: World Economic Situation and Prospects. (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2014). current account balances that supported macroeconomic stability and improved the investment environment in many African countries. The continent s growth in 2013 was also underpinned by increased agricultural output, due to favourable weather conditions in most parts of the region. 8. Despite Africa s recent growth performance, its growth potential remains largely untapped. During the period from 2009 to 2013, overall, the economies of Africa grew by an average of 3.6 per cent a year, below the continent s potential growth rate for that period of about 4.2 per cent. This output gap demonstrates the existence of spare capacity in Africa, suggesting that growth can be fostered with policies that stimulate aggregate demand and trade within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world. 9. However, growth in oil-exporting African countries fell from 9.9 per cent in 2012 to 4.7 per cent in A recovery accounted for the unusually high growth in 2012, while the decline in 2013 was, in addition to the high base, mainly due to subdued global demand, as well as to disruptions in oil production and political unrest in some of Africa s major oil-producing economies such as Libya. Despite their sharp drop in growth, these countries remained among the leading drivers of Africa s weighted growth in 2013, with oil alone contributing about 24 per cent of the continent s total growth. Oil-importing economies grew by 3.7 per cent in 2013, up from 3.1 per cent in 2012, while mineral-rich economies grew by 3.8 per cent in 2013, up from 3.7 per cent in Growth was also driven by strong expansion in services and agriculture in both resource-rich and resource-poor African countries. 10. Growth is expected to accelerate in oil-exporting countries to 6.5 per cent in 2014, with a slight decline to 5.9 per cent in 2015, while in mineral-rich economies it is expected to accelerate to 4.4 per cent in 2014 and 4.7 per cent in 2015, as stability returns to countries such as Egypt, Libya and Mali. The forecast pick-up also reflects investment and production at new mineral sites in for example Angola (coal), Botswana (copper, coal and diamonds), Ghana and Liberia (gold), Namibia (uranium and diamonds), Sierra Leone (iron ore and diamonds) and Zambia (copper). Oil importing economies are expected to record strong growth too, of 4.1 per cent in 2014 and 4.3 per cent in 2015, driven mainly by strong expansion in services and agriculture. 11. Growth rates varied among Africa s subregions in 2013 slightly more than in 2012, but remained respectable in all (fig. 2). West Africa had the highest growth, though its rate remained unchanged in 2013, at 6.7 per cent. 12. The continent-wide inflation rate fell from 8.2 per cent in 2012 to 8.0 per cent in 2013, and is projected to drop further to 7.8 per cent in The factors responsible for these decreases include mod- 2

13 E/ECA/COE/33/11 Figure 2: Growth rates by subregion, Real GDP growth rate (%) f African sub-regions North Africa West Africa Central Africa East Africa Southern Africa Source: World Economic Situation and Prospects. (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2014.) erating international food and fuel prices and tighter monetary policy in most African countries. 13. Africa s current account deficit widened from 0.8 per cent of GDP in 2012 to 1.8 per cent of GDP in 2013, but is expected to narrow slightly to 1.7 per cent in In oil-exporting countries, external balances remained positive, despite falls, however they were negative in oil-importing countries and narrowing in mineral-rich countries. 14. Africa s exports are projected to decline further to 27.5 per cent of GDP in 2014, in all subregions except East Africa where they are showing a slight gain due to increasing levels of non-traditional exports such as horticulture and trade in services, especially in Ethiopia, Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania. Similarly, total imports are expected to decline as a share of GDP across all subregions, with the largest decline taking place in Southern Africa, from 29.5 per cent in 2013 to 27.3 per cent in C. Need for export diversification to boost trade and sustain growth 2012, the continent accounted for just 3.3 per cent of world merchandise exports. 2 This compares with 4.9 per cent in , though it is a little better than the figure of 2.8 per cent seen in Africa s share in world imports has witnessed a similar slowdown. 16. Oil, metal and other mineral exports accounted for more than two thirds of total export growth over the period from 2002 to 2012, and oil alone accounted for more than half of merchandise exports in In the first half of 2013, goods exports (by value) contracted by 4.1 per cent, owing to decreased overall output caused by political instability in Egypt and Libya as well as slowing global demand and softening global commodity prices. 17. Intra-African trade (imports and exports) rose from $67.7 billion in 2011 to $73.7 billion in In 2012, intra-african trade accounted for 11.5 per cent of Africa s total trade. Between 1996 and 2011, Africa s trade with the rest of the world grew at a rate of 12.0 per cent, faster than the 8.2 per cent rate for intra-african trade. This is largely explained by high commodity prices, as Africa s exports to the rest of the world are skewed towards primary commodities 15. Although Africa s exports have generally kept growing in absolute terms, they showed declines in 2013 relative to aggregate output. And although the volume of Africa s merchandise (or goods) trade grew faster than that of non-african economies from 2011 to 2012, Africa s share in world exports is still low. In 2 World Trade Organization (2013). World Trade Report 2013: Factors Shaping the Future of World Trade. 3 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2013). Economic Development in Africa Report Intra-African Trade: Unlocking Private Sector Dynamism. Sales No. E.13.II.D.2. 4 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. UNCTADStat (database). Available at ReportFolders/reportFolders.aspx. 3

14 Annual Report, 2014 (dominated by mineral, oil and other metal products), unlike intra-african trade Although informal intra-african cross-border trade is not recorded in the data cited above, it is nonetheless significant. One recent report suggests that informal trade within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) accounts for 30 to 40 per cent of total intra-sadc trade. 6 Such trade also seems to be high in other subregions, but estimates are not readily available. 19. Among the key factors constraining Africa s trade are its narrow production and export base, which is dominated by primary commodities, its very high trade costs, tariff and non-tariff barriers to intra-african trade, and its difficulties in accessing international markets. Trade and growth policies should therefore seek to tackle these issues, with the main aim of boosting Africa s trade and its impact on economic transformation. D. Innovative approaches to bridging Africa s financing gap 20. Scaling up both domestic and external financial resources is central to Africa s industrialization, as its financing gap remains large, at around 6 per cent of GDP in 2011, with the gross domestic savings rate consistently lower than the gross domestic investment rate since Despite improved economic growth recently, domestic savings have consistently fallen short of the continent s investment needs, 7 while official development assistance is expected to continue to decline in the near future. Africa therefore needs to focus on more innovative approaches and untapped sources to mobilize domestic resources and external private capital. 21. The financing of Africa s industrialization and economic transformation has to be increasingly based on domestic public and private resources, and in order for that to happen, Africa needs to explore untapped sources of capital to meet its development financing needs. In addition to traditional domestic sources of finance such as taxes, levies and private savings (dis- 5 See footnote 3. 6 See footnote 3. 7 See Economic Commission for Africa and African Union (2012). Economic Report on Africa 2012: Unleashing Africa s Potential as a Pole of Global Growth. See also Economic Commission for Africa and African Union (2013). Economic Report on Africa Making the Most of Africa s Commodities: Industrializing for Growth, Jobs and Economic Transformation. cussed extensively in the 2012 and 2013 editions of the Economic Report on Africa) 8, Africa needs to adopt a broader and more diversified set of mechanisms and financial products, and an enabling environment for mobilizing resources from non-traditional sources. E. Policies to achieve inclusive growth and transformative development 22. Africa is making progress on some of the key social development challenges, but too slowly to meet its social development goals including the targets set out in the Millennium Development Goals. 23. Improvement in some key social indicators: Africa continues to make steady progress in tackling some of its key social and economic challenges. In many African countries, the incidence of extreme poverty is on the decline. Attending primary school is becoming the norm, with most countries having achieved universal primary enrolment (above 90 per cent). Nearly one half of African countries have achieved gender parity in primary school enrolment. On the political front, 20 per cent of seats in African national parliaments are now held by women, a figure that is surpassed only in Latin America and the Caribbean. Health has also seen major gains: between 1990 and 2011, mortality rates for children under 5 years of age declined from 146 to 90 deaths per 1,000 live births a 38 per cent decrease. Similarly, the maternal mortality rate declined between 1990 and 2010 from 745 to 429 deaths per 100,000 live births a 42 per cent decrease. 24. High poverty levels and limited access to social services: Nearly one half of Africans (48 per cent) live in extreme poverty, and 72 per cent of the continent s young people live on less than two dollars a day. The prevalence of underweight in Africa is second only to that in South Asia. While the world as a whole is on track to meet the target for the proportion of the population that has access to safe sources of drinking water, Africa is not, and the continent now accounts for more than 40 per cent of people worldwide who do not have access to safe drinking water. Furthermore, most of the continent is not on track to meet the target for improved sanitation facilities. 25. Inequality is undermining efforts to reduce poverty: The Gini coefficient (measure of income inequality) for Africa was 44.2 in 2008, ranking it as the region with the second-highest rate of inequality 8 Ibid. 4

15 E/ECA/COE/33/11 in the world, after Latin America and the Caribbean. A 1 per cent increase in inequality increases poverty by 2.16 per cent in Africa, where gender inequalities persist. In countries such as Algeria, Côte d Ivoire and Mauritania, women s wages are only around one half of the wages of men for similar work. 26. Gender and spatial disparities in access to social services are of concern: Births to women in the richest quintile are nearly three times as likely to be attended by a trained professional as births to women in the poorest quintile, while 90 per cent of women in urban areas had at least one antenatal care visit during pregnancy compared to 71 per cent of women in rural areas. Children and adolescents from the poorest households are at least three times more likely to be out of school than those from the richest households. Furthermore, children from the poorest households are more than twice as likely to be stunted as those from the richest households, leading to further school dropouts. 27. Labour market indicators are still positive after the global financial and economic crisis. Employment growth in Africa (excluding North Africa) was firm at 2.9 per cent in The employment-to-population ratio reached 65.1 per cent in the same year, largely driven by increased participation by women, and was second only to East Asia s figure of 69.8 per cent. By contrast, in the rest of the world, the employment-to-population ratio in 2012 remained stagnant at 60.3 per cent. 28. Most Africans are locked into vulnerable jobs with low wages and low productivity. With 46.5 per cent of workers earning less than $1.25 a day in 2012, vulnerable employment is high in Africa compared with other regions. These figures remain highly skewed towards women and young people. In 2012, 84.9 per cent of women in Africa were in vulnerable employment the majority of them contributing family workers compared to 70.6 per cent of men. 29. Although the official youth unemployment rates in Africa (excluding North Africa) are lower than in most other regions, they are much higher than the adult unemployment rates: in 2012 these rates rose, respectively, by some 12 per cent and 6 per cent. While lack of skills is commonly the main hurdle for youths trying to enter the labour market, sometimes it is both the lack of jobs and the mismatch between skills demanded and skills supplied that is the main source of unemployment. 30. Employment prospects are hindered by low labour productivity gains: Labour productivity increased by an average of 1.6 per cent in and by 2.3 per cent in , but it remains low by comparison with East Asia, where it grew by 7.5 per cent in the period from 2000 to It is expected to drop to a cumulative 1.9 per cent over the period, mainly because of inadequate investment in human and financial capital. 9 Part of the productivity growth in Africa is due to the shift of labour from less productive to more productive sectors, particularly from agriculture to services, however alongside low agricultural productivity, jobs are not moving out of agriculture or industry as fast as expected. Services are absorbing most of the fall in agriculture s share, leaving employment in industry almost stagnant, at 8.6 per cent over the past 12 years. This is likely to hinder economic and employment prospects, as most of the jobs in agriculture and services remain informal, with low productivity and wages and poor working conditions. 31. Strengthening human capital: Stronger human capital is critical for employment, labour productivity and industrialization. Decent jobs and steep poverty reduction hinge on success in diversifying the economy from low-productivity agricultural and informal sectors to high-productivity sectors such as manufacturing and modern services. Consequently, policies to improve education and health should be part of economic growth and transformation strategies. F. Africa s growth outlook 32. Africa s medium-term growth prospects are strong, bolstered by relatively high commodity prices, increasing domestic demand, easing infrastructural constraints, ever-tighter trade and investment ties with emerging economies, and improving global economic and regional business environments. However, the continent s medium-term growth outlook still faces several downside risks, including unexpected adverse developments in the global economy, external shocks due to changes in weather conditions, and political instability and civil unrest in some countries. 33. In order to translate rapid economic growth into sustained and inclusive development, Africa must follow through on development strategies that foster economic diversification, create jobs, reduce inequality and poverty, and boost access to basic services. 9 International Labour Organization (2013). Global Employment Trends 2013: Recovering from a Second Jobs Dip. Geneva. 5

16 Annual Report, 2014 G. Conclusions 34. Although robust, Africa s recent growth remains below potential and has failed to translate into the meaningful job creation and broad-based economic and social development that is needed in order to reduce the high poverty and inequality rates seen in many countries. It is therefore essential that African countries embark on strategies to transform their economies via increased value addition in the primary commodity sector and diversify into higher-productivity employment-generating sectors, especially manufacturing and modern services. 35. Industry and manufacturing in particular has traditionally been a source of substantial employment generation in developed and developing countries. In spite of Africa s decade-long high growth rate, the contribution of the sector to aggregate output and GDP growth has either stagnated or declined in most countries. Reversing this trend calls for industrial policies in long-term planning frameworks that address constraints to economic diversification and development. In order to finance the necessary investments, Africa needs to tap new sources of finance, especially innovative domestic sources. 36. A well-crafted growth and transformation strategy that enhances the productive capacities of all segments of the labour force tends to reduce inequality by promoting equal opportunities for employment; and so economic transformation strategies should embody policies to promote high-quality education and health services, powering greater productivity and more inclusive growth. 6

17 E/ECA/COE/33/11 CHAPTER II Highlights of programme activities and results A. Macroeconomic policy 37. The subprogamme aims to promote strong, inclusive and sustainable growth and development in Africa for job creation and poverty reduction, underpinned by good governance and stability. The work of the subprogramme is organized around four focus areas: first, forecasting macroeconomic and other trends; second, development strategy and planning; third, development financing and private sector development; and, fourth, institutions, illicit financial flows and public sector management. 38. In the area of forecasting trends, the Commission undertook qualitative research, organized high-level conferences and held a series of capacity building activities during the period under review. The 2014 edition of the Economic Report on Africa, prepared jointly with the African Union Commission, aims to improve the design, implementation and monitoring of economic and social policies of member States. The report, which is on the theme Dynamic industrial policy in Africa: innovative institutions, effective processes and flexible mechanisms, examines the constraints and opportunities for industrialization in Africa and promotes an integrated development policy framework for industrial policy effectiveness. 39. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is in the process of developing a macroeconomic policy framework for Africa s transformation. To strengthen the process, a brainstorming meeting was held on December 2013 with the overall objective of defining the underlying principles that will guide the study and development of the framework, in particular the key focus areas that would help to address the issue of how African countries could formulate, design and implement sound macroeconomic policies to promote employment generation and economic transformation. 40. ECA expanded its work in the area of renewal of planning during A major output in this area is the annual progress report on the Millennium Development Goals, which is produced in collaboration with the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The 2013 edition of the report considered the theme: Food security in Africa: issues, challenges, and lessons. The report highlighted progress towards many goals, targets and indicators of the Millennium Development Goals, in addition to the challenges around translating economic growth into decent jobs, improved service delivery and reduced inequalities. This joint output was presented at the twenty-first ordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union in May 2013 and also widely disseminated to member States, regional economic communities, civil society bodies and the private sector, as an information and advocacy tool. In addition, as a member of the secretariat of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the Commission has been at the forefront of activities related to the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015 and to the formulation of the African common position on that agenda. It continues to provide technical support and contribute to the global processes on the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015 and the sustainable development goals. 41. To strengthen national capacities in development planning in Africa, ECA established and officially launched the African network of development planners, which was designed to foster peer learning and knowledge sharing at the Sixth Joint Annual Meetings of the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and African Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance, in Abidjan in March In addition, the Commission is preparing case studies on lessons learned in planning, which will be complemented by 7

18 Annual Report, 2014 policy dialogue and the formation of public-private partnerships in the context of South-South cooperation. Several countries, including Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, have since sought to organize their own bilateral study tours, which should enhance the development of their private sector and strengthen financing mechanisms for development. online surveys on that issue in the other African countries and will draw on experiences from Africa, Latin America and East Asia. The findings of these country case studies will be presented at a side event at the 2014 Conference. 42. In the area of finance and private sector development, a number of research projects were mounted under the subprogramme, leading to publications which have enhanced the capacity of member States to promote private sector development and also to mobilize domestic and external resources for development. The publications provided policy advice and strategies on supporting private sector development and helped to identify strategies for financing development. In the area of development finance, the 2013 edition of the Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness in Africa report was produced in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It reviewed the delivery of commitments and the results achieved in four broad policy areas, namely: sustainable economic growth, investment in people, good governance, and financing for development. The Mutual Review represents one of the most effective instruments for the tracking of development efforts, assessment of performance and indication of priority actions for Africa and its partners, with a view to promoting the structural transformation of African economies. 43. As part of efforts to promote South-South cooperation, an economic forum and business tour to the Republic of Korea for African policymakers and private sector stakeholders was organized under the subprogramme, to enable participants to learn from that country s transformation experience. The event helped promote economic cooperation and the forging of business linkages between Africa and the Republic of Korea. Under this initiative, experiences and business information were shared, with a view to promoting exports, diversifying businesses and strengthening value chains through improved 44. The eighth convocation of the African Economic Conference, organized jointly by ECA, the African Development Bank and UNDP, was held in Johannesburg in October 2013, on the theme of regional integration and trade. The Conference has become a major forum for policymakers, researchers and academics from across the world to gather together to discuss and share knowledge and ideas as a contribution to tackling the development challenges of Africa. 45. In the area of governance and public sector management, ECA continued to provide support to regional and subregional institutions in the implementation of the Regional Anti-Corruption Programme for Africa ( ), through technical support, the production of technical policy papers, peer learning and capacity development. ECA support was also instrumental in enhancing the capacity and technical knowledge of the members of the African Union Advisory Board on Corruption and strengthening collaboration with the Union, in facilitating the gradual revival of the African Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities, and in strengthening the African anti corruption networks and associations. 46. ECA also continued to backstop the work of the High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa. Over the course of 2013, it helped prepare a background paper, country case studies and regional consultations. The country case studies explored the main drivers and dynamics of illicit financial flows, and also the main instruments and institutional settings designed to combat them. The report of the High-level Panel also included specific information that underpinned pragmatic recommendations to national governments and other stakeholders on ways of addressing the impacts of illicit financial flows. Support was also provided to the High-level Panel in two regional consultations held during the year, the first for East and Southern Africa, in Lusaka in June 2013, and the second for West and Central Africa, in Accra in December As part of its outreach activities, the High-level Panel has also interacted with various governmental bodies, United Nations agencies and other international and regional organizations, think tanks and private sector bodies. 8

19 E/ECA/COE/33/ Key achievements during the year include enhanced collaboration among the various stakeholders, the active involvement of all segments of society, and the increased knowledge and capacity of African State agencies. The resulting improved understanding of the scale and dimensions of illicit financial flows from the continent is now influencing the national and regional policy discourse and legislation; as a result, existing national and regional instruments are being strengthened and new ones created. Furthermore, strong coalitions and partnerships are being established both within and outside the continent. B. Regional integration and trade 48. Within the framework of its programme on regional integration and trade, ECA aims to promote effective regional cooperation and integration among member States, including regional approaches to tackling the challenges of trade, industry, agriculture and land. 49. Under this subprogramme, ECA continued to support efforts by Africa to establish a continental free trade area and a common market. Activities undertaken in this context covered key priorities of the integration agenda, in particular in the areas of industrialization, infrastructure (including transport and energy development), trade, investments, and food and agriculture, with special emphasis on the development of regional value chains. The Land Policy Initiative, which is a key component of interventions in the area of agriculture, also constituted an important dimension of the subprogramme s activities during the period. In 2013, the subprogramme registered a number of key accomplishments in various areas of its work. Some of the more notable results are highlighted below. 50. The sixth edition of the Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA VI) report aims to provide policy guidance to member States in implementing the regional integration agenda. ARIA VI, published jointly with the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank, builds on the momentum of decision 394(XVIII) adopted by the Assembly of the African Union in January 2012, on boosting intra-african trade and fast-tracking the establishment of a continental free trade area by The report explores aspects of the negotiations on the rules of origin and ancillary trade facilitation instruments designed to kick start the continental common market. Other activities were carried out with the African Union Commission relating to implementa- tion of the action plan to boost intra-african trade and the continental free trade area; the harmonization and implementation of trade facilitation measures across the regional economic communities; support for the Conference of African Ministers in Charge of Regional Integration, held in Port Louis in April 2013; promotion of the Observatory on Regional Integration in Africa as a platform to keep member Harmonizing Policies to Transform the Trading Environment Assessing Regional Integration in Africa VI States and other stakeholders informed about the achievement of regional integration milestones; and development of the compendium of best practices on regional integration across the regional economic communities. ECA also supported the establishment on the African Knowledge for Development Networks platform of a community of practice, which is currently functioning actively ( africa-devnet.org/). 51. In the area of trade, ECA facilitated the emergence of a common African position on aid for trade issues, with its report Building Trade Capacities for Africa s Transformation: A Critical Review of Aid for Trade, launched at the fourth Global Review on Aid for Trade, held in Geneva in July In partnership with the Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa, ECA held a session on trade facilitation and regional integration at the Trade and Development Symposium in Bali, Indonesia, in December The recommendations from the symposium have been used to inform the work of the African Union Commission on trade facilitation in Africa. ECA also provided technical assistance to Botswana, Côte d Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana and Mauritius in the area of agriculture and rural transformation and to Algeria and Morocco in that of trade agreements. Advisory services were also rendered to some member States on how to strengthen their capacity to mainstream trade policies in national development strategies; and on the management and development of integrated water resources. 53. Other achievements under the subprogramme included support in drafting the agreement on the trans-african highway, in the elaboration of a road safety charter for Africa and in the regional preparations for the global review of the Almaty Programme of Action. ECA also contributed to the first Africa Transport Policy Forum, held in Dakar in December 2013, which led to several recommendations on the implementation of the road safety action plan. In addition, ECA contributed to the research for 9

20 Annual Report, 2014 and final production of the African bioenergy policy framework and guidelines, which will be tabled for ratification at the July 2014 summit of the African Union. C. Innovations, technologies and management of Africa s natural resources 54. During the period under review, under the subprogramme on innovations, technologies and management of Africa s natural resources, ECA continued to support member States in their efforts to adopt development strategies to improve the management of mineral resources and to minimize environmental risks and ecological scarcities, promoting understanding of the green economy by member States and helping them to harness the potentials of science, new technologies and innovations and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. 55. In the area of green economy and natural resources, ECA, jointly with the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank, prepared five subregional and one regional report highlighting Africa s sustainable development priorities, which informed the Africa Regional Consultative Meeting on the Sustainable Development Goals, held in Addis Ababa from 31 October to 5 November At the meeting, African ministers adopted an outcome document containing, among other items, an agreed set of twelve sustainable development goals to feed into the work of the High-level Committee of African Heads of State and Government on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. 56. The period under review saw progress in the preparation of the fifth edition of the Sustainable Development Report on Africa, which is being produced jointly with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, UNDP, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) under the theme Achieving sustainable development in Africa through inclusive green growth. Six country case studies on inclusive green growth good practices were commissioned as part of the process of preparing the report. The compendium of good practices and the fifth edition of the report will contribute to informing the design and implementation of policies, strategies and programmes on inclusive green growth in Africa. 57. Other important achievements of the subprogramme include capacity building support to policymakers to mainstream natural disaster risk reduction into national and regional development frameworks. In this regard, four national assessments (by Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria and Togo) and two subregional assessments (West Africa and Southern Africa) were carried out on the mainstreaming and implementation of disaster risk reduction. Workshops were organized to enhance the knowledge and skills of over 100 policymakers and practitioners from the two regional economic communities and their member States on the mainstreaming and implementation of disaster risk reduction. 58. Through its work on fostering technology and innovation for development, ECA provided policy support and technical assistance to Guinea, Seychelles, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe in the design, implementation and review of policies and plans in the field of information and communications technology. With ECA support, Seychelles completed 10

21 E/ECA/COE/33/11 the development of its cyber security law, while the United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe reviewed their national strategies and implementation plans relating to information and communications technology. Guinea commenced the implementation of its e-government strategy. ECA is also assisting the Government of Namibia in its efforts to collect and analyse statistics on information and communications technology in support of its policymaking process, using a toolkit developed by ECA. 59. In the area of policy research, ECA published a report on Africa s innovation policy environment and completed an assessment of the challenges facing the continent in the transfer of publicly funded research and development outputs. ECA also completed its assessment of the implementation of information and communications technology policies in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gambia, Morocco and Mozambique and developed a manual on a set of e-government indicators as part of the system for assessing progress in information and communications technology. 60. To promote innovation among youth, ECA organized a second biomedical innovators school in Kenya, to expose students and researchers from nine African universities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia to the emerging technologies in open source design and rapid prototyping and fabrication. 61. At the regional and subregional levels, ECA continued to provide support to the African Union Commission and its New Partnership for Africa s Development (NEPAD) programme and to the regional economic communities. In this regard, ECA coordinated the development of the convention on cyber legislation, which is awaiting adoption by the Assembly of the African Union. It also provided support to the African Union Commission in organizing the Africa Internet Governance Forum. 62. Where the servicing of intergovernmental and inter agency committees is concerned, ECA organized and serviced the third meeting of the Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology, held in Addis Ababa in March 2013, and provided substantive support to the Annual Ministerial Review of the Economic and Social Council, held in Geneva in July 2013, including through the regional preparatory meeting for Africa, held in Dar es Salaam in March Where new areas of work are concerned, a series of research studies was launched with a focus on methodologies for preparing country profiles and readiness studies on sexually transmitted infections; assessing the contribution of information and communications technology to Africa s recent economic growth; and assessing the development of open government in Africa. 64. In the area of climate change, ECA embarked on a pilot project in three countries (Ethiopia, the Gambia and Rwanda) aimed at strengthening and upgrading the meteorological and hydrological observation networks and information management systems of those countries. This will lead to the provision of comprehensive climate and related environmental information to policymakers, policy support organizations, and the public at large, in formats that meet the needs of each of these groups. In addition to supporting evidence-based decision-making processes, ECA launched a study of the climate vulnerability of African infrastructure, aimed at assessing the impact of climate change in the seven major river basins of Africa, and supported analytical research to generate knowledge and information on groundwater and underground water dams in Burkina Faso, Mali, the Niger and Senegal. ECA also launched the climate science research project at the first African Climate Conference, held in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, to support multidisciplinary research to improve climate forecasting skills and reliability across temporal and spatial scales, improve observation systems and delivery and build capacity in climate science and communication to link climate knowledge with action. 65. Where climate adaptation and mitigation are concerned, assessments were undertaken of agriculture policies in Kenya, Malawi and Mali, in order to create a more robust agricultural innovation ecosystem, which is capable of producing next generation crop technologies for food security and meeting climate change and climate variability challenges. 66. In addition, ECA conducted case studies on loss and damage assessment in five African countries, 11

22 Annual Report, 2014 namely, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Kenya and Mozambique. The results of these studies contributed to the discussions on the loss and damage work programme of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the nineteenth session of its Conference of the Parties, held in Warsaw in November The studies provided evidence of the extent to which households and communities in Africa are affected by the adverse effects of climate change and are able to cope with those effects. At the end of the negotiations at the nineteenth session, a work programme on loss and damage was approved under the Framework Convention process that will enable vulnerable countries and communities to access resources and technical support towards building resilience and addressing the impacts of climate change. 67. In support of informed decision-making, awareness and advocacy for climate change adaptation and mitigation in Africa, ECA held the third annual Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa on the theme Africa on the rise: can the opportunities from climate change spring the continent to transformative development? The conference was attended by more than 700 participants, including two former heads of State, policymakers, scientists, academics, farmers, representatives of women s groups, health practitioners and media workers. A total of 62 scientific presentations were made and 35 academic papers were submitted for review. The conference provided a platform to review and discuss key issues in the negotiations, in order to fine-tune positions on various negotiations tracks, based on empirical analysis and evidence. 68. In a similar vein, ECA supported the African group of negotiators at the nineteenth session of the Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Two major events were led by ECA: first, the Africa Day event on the theme Climate change and agriculture in Africa s development and, second, a high level dialogue on science for development, tackling the question: Can Africa sustain its transformational development without investing in climate science? The dialogue contributed to raising awareness of increased support for the ClimDev- Africa programme and the importance of investment in climate science, data and information in Africa. 69. In the area of mineral resources development, ECA provided support to the African Union Commission in organizing the third ordinary session of the African Union Conference of Ministers Responsible for Mineral Resources Development, held in Maputo in December 2013, on the theme: Leveraging the Africa Mining Vision for Africa s renaissance towards broader ownership. A major outcome of the Conference was the formal launch of the African Minerals Development Centre and the endorsement of its business plan and strategy. 70. The African Minerals Development Centre commenced its operations in 2013 and responded to several requests for assistance during the period under review. In particular, the Centre worked closely with UNDP to develop a mining and mineral policy for Lesotho that is compliant with the African Mining Vision and will feed into a draft green policy framework being developed by the Government. ECA also participated in the Responsible Mineral Development Initiative round table held in November 2013 in Maputo on the future of the extractive industries sector in Mozambique. As a follow-up to the recommendations of the round table, ECA, the African Minerals Development Centre and UNDP will be supporting the formulation of a business plan to scale up the implementation of the country s vision for the extractive sector. Together with the African Union Commission, the Chamber of Mines of South Africa and Mining Indaba LLC, the conveners of the event, the African Minerals Development Centre co-organized a ministerial symposium at the 2014 session of Mining Indaba, held in Cape Town in February The symposium was part of the African Mining Vision day at Mining Indaba and provided an opportunity to raise awareness of the African Mining Vision at the Indaba, which was attended by 37 African government delegations, 10 non-african government delegations and representatives of 2,100 international companies from six continents. D. Statistics 71. The objective of ECA work under this subprogramme is to improve national statistical data and information for informed policymaking and economic management. Accordingly, the Commission s work during the reporting period was articulated around the following priorities: promoting, coordinating and advocating statistical activities in Africa; building a data hub at ECA for the provision of development data on Africa; implementing the standard international System of National Accounts in Africa; supporting statistical training programmes; supporting the development of the post 2015 development indicators; supporting the regional programme for population and housing censuses in line with internationally adopted cycles; improving the status of civil registration and vital statistics in Africa; and providing technical assistance in various areas of statistics. 12

23 E/ECA/COE/33/ The fifth edition of the African Statistical Yearbook and the African Statistics Pocketbook, jointly produced by ECA, the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank, were published in 2013 as an authoritative source of statistical information on Africa, with improved efficiency, effectiveness and timeliness. The joint data collection and publication initiative has proved to be highly efficient and has significantly reduced the data collection burden on countries and reduced duplication of efforts and inconsistencies among different organizations. The publication has been widely distributed in hard copies, CDs and flash disks to end users in Africa and libraries, and the online versions in African Development Bank databases have been visited by over 500,000 users, the majority of whom come from academic and research institutions. 73. In the area of population and housing censuses, the joint advocacy efforts of ECA, the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Statistics South Africa resulted in increased participation by African countries in the 2010 round of population and housing censuses. Four counties, namely, Gabon, the Gambia, Mauritania and Senegal, conducted censuses in 2013, bringing to 40 the number of countries that have already carried out this exercise. An in-depth assessment of the 2010 round of population and housing censuses was undertaken in eight selected countries, with a view to identifying lessons learned. The findings have been widely disseminated to inform preparations for the 2020 round. 74. The implementation of the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics continued to be an important area of focus under the subprogramme during the reporting period. In response to a resolution by the Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration to conduct comprehensive assessments of civil registration and vital statistics systems in their respective countries and to develop national plans of action for improvement of the systems, the regional secretariat for the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, in collaboration with the regional core group, The regional core group includes ECA, the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank, the United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization 2013 African Statistical Yearbook Annuaire statistique pour l Afrique 2013 has trained a pool of 31 experts in civil registration and vital statistics to support countries in the assessment and planning exercise. These experts are now supporting countries in their assessments and guiding them in developing plans. To date, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia have requested and benefited from the support of this pool in undertaking the assessment. More countries are now seeking support in this area. The secretariat intends continuously to mentor and expand the existing pool with the intention of meeting the capacity gap in civil registration and vital statistics on the continent. 75. Following the effective use in previous years of the series of African symposiums on statistical development to promote the 2010 round of population and housing censuses, the focus of the symposium has now shifted to civil registration and vital statistics. Accordingly, the ninth session of the African Symposium on Statistical Development, held in Gaborone in February 2014, took up the theme of promoting the use of civil registration and vital statistics in support of good governance in Africa. The outcome of the symposium will feed into the discussions and policy directives of the third Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration, to be held in Abidjan in October ECA continued to support the efforts of member States to produce timely statistics for measuring progress towards their development goals, with particular focus on the Millennium Development Goals. Awareness has also been raised among member States of the continuing policy work on the post-2015 development agenda at international and regional levels, to initiate work on development indicators and prepare a road map for meeting the statistical challenges in the context of the data revolution called for by the High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Three groups have been formed, comprising member States which are now working on identifying indicators on the different subject areas in line with the common African (WHO), UNFPA, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the INDEPTH Network, Statistics South Africa and Plan International. 13

24 Annual Report, 2014 position developed by the African Union Commission, ECA, the African Development Bank and UNDP. 77. With support from ECA, along with the African Development Bank and the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), over 30 countries are at different stages in the development of their national strategies for the development of statistics. Several countries, including the Comoros, Nigeria and Togo, have made progress in the formulation of legal frameworks and the establishment of more autonomous statistical offices to improve compilation and dissemination, based solely on professional considerations. Other countries have increased government funding and donor support through basket funding, as is in Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Some countries, including Burkina Faso, Madagascar and the Niger, have strengthened their national statistical training centres, through extensive collaboration with regional training centres. Most African countries have also improved coordination and achieved the integration of sectors in their national strategies. Other areas in which ECA provided support include the development of a regional strategy for the implementation of the 2008 System of National Accounts in line with the global strategy; and the implementation of the global programme on agricultural and rural statistics. 78. In order to improve the availability and use of geospatial information, ECA continued to develop numerous information and knowledge resources, applications and services. These include the guidelines of best practices for the acquisition, storage, maintenance and dissemination of fundamental geospatial datasets. The guidelines are intended to support knowledge sharing through communities of practice. They will serve as a valuable tool for national mapping agencies and others, in providing the fundamental geospatial information. ECA also continued to work with other partners in implementing the African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF) programme, a unified geodetic reference frame for Africa that captures maps and other geo-information products in a seamless way. Activities undertaken in this regard include the commissioning of global positioning data centres concurrently to process and analyse data from AFREF; developing the methodologies for computing the AFREF transformation parameters; and working with the Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom or Great Britain and Northern Ireland to finalize the rolling out of 30 new global navigation satellite system reference stations so as to increase the density of, and also to fill the gaps in, the AFREF network of receiving stations. 79. Recognizing that the low technology base in many African countries is one of the primary factors inhibiting the availability of statistical data for informed decision-making and policymaking, ECA has initiated an ambitious project on the use of mobile technology for data collection, using funding from the United Nations Development Account. This project will make use of the existing statistical structures in national statistical systems to test, adapt and, where necessary, develop new mobile data collection systems. It seeks to strengthen the capacity of national statistical systems to produce reliable, comprehensive, timely and integrated statistics by making use of mobile devices. In the first phase, five pilot countries have been identified for the development of the methodologies. At the end of this first phase, an additional five pilot countries will be identified, to refine the methodology and roll out procedures. E. Capacity development 80. The main objective of ECA work under this subprogramme is to provide focused, coherent and integrated capacity development support to build and strengthen the capabilities of member States, the African Union Commission, the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, the regional economic communities and other intergovernmental organizations to promote and achieve inclusive growth for sustainable development and transformation in the context of NEPAD and the African Union s Agenda In meeting this objective, the subprogramme uses and operationalizes the findings from ECA research and normative work. Since June 2013, ECA work in this area has mainly focused on elements of capacity development as specified in various work programmes inherited from a wide range of other ECA divisions for the biennium, including the ten year capacity building programme for the African Union. Activities under the subprogramme during the year focused mainly on coordinating the United Nations system s support for the African Union and its NEPAD programme within the framework of the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa (RCM- Africa), and also on support for implementation of the African Peer Review Mechanism. Capacity building assistance was also provided to member States and the regional economic communities in strengthening their policymaking capacity in various areas of development, using the mechanism of the United Nations regular programme of technical cooperation. 81. A major priority of the subprogramme in 2013 was the development and finalization of a coherent and results-oriented capacity development strategy 14

25 E/ECA/COE/33/11 Capacity Development Strategy to support the development efforts of member States and their intergovernmental organizations at the regional and subregional levels. The strategy focuses on providing support in thematic areas where ECA has a comparative advantage, such as regional integration, trade, agriculture, infrastructure, economic governance, gender, social and economic issues and science and technology. 82. In line with the mandate conferred upon it by the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in June 2012, ECA is contributing to the African Union s Agenda 2063 through the provision of technical and advisory services. It has provided technical inputs to the elaboration of the agenda, including the establishment of baselines, preparation of perspective studies and forecasts and provision of a platform to enable the United Nations system to contribute to the Agenda 2063 process through RCM- Africa presented many opportunities for the United Nations to enhance its support to the African Union and its NEPAD programme, both collectively and individually. In this regard, United Nations entities continued to improve the alignment of their programmes with those of the African Union Commission, the NEPAD Agency and the regional economic communities. Through RCM-Africa and its nine thematic clusters, interaction between United Nations agencies and organizations, on the one hand, and the institutions of the African Union (African Union Commission, NEPAD Agency, regional economic communities and the Pan-African Parliament), on the other, continued to be strengthened during the year. The implementation of the joint work programme of the African Union (the ten-year capacitybuilding programme) gathered momentum in The coordination of clusters has been strengthened with an increasing number of jointly implemented programmes leading to tangible results. Significant progress has also been made in the establishment and activities of the subregional coordination mechanisms, in particular those for North Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa and Central Africa, which have developed comprehensive business plans. 83. As the secretariat of RCM-Africa, ECA strengthened coherence and coordination within the mechanism s clusters by developing operational guidelines, assisting in developing business plans, promoting inter-cluster and intra-cluster communications and backstopping the mandated meetings of the clusters. 85. A significant event on the 2013 calendar was the fourteenth session of RCM-Africa, hosted by the African Union Commission in November 2013 on the theme of United Nations support for the African Union s Agenda The meeting also considered the preliminary report of the second triennial review of the ten-year capacity building programme for the African Union; a briefing on the regional development cooperation framework; and the operationalization of the Millennium Development Goals Africa Working Group and RCM-Africa, with a view to building synergies and integrating the work of both structures related to the Millennium Development Goals. Participants at the meeting requested the RCM-Africa secretariat to prepare a regional development assistance framework that responded to the goals and objectives of the African Union as expressed in its strategic plan, with clear roles and responsibilities for United Nations agencies within the context of RCM-Africa. A working group has been established to implement the recommendations of the fourteenth session and to prepare for the fifteenth session of RCM-Africa, to be held in Abuja during the Conference of Ministers in March The working group will make recommendations on the framework for the provision of United Nations support to the African Union and its NEPAD programme, including the African Union s Agenda 2063 and a successor programme to the ten-year capacity-building programme after In addition to providing support to member States and the African Union in the implementation 15

26 Annual Report, 2014 of the NEPAD priorities, ECA is also supporting the NEPAD Agency in the implementation of its strategic plan. In this regard, ECA worked closely with the Agency in preparing a landmark study, mandated by African Heads of State, on domestic resources mobilization in Africa. The study concludes that Africa has ample resources to finance its development and recommends a number of instruments driven by the private sector for domestic resource mobilization in Africa. These include the Africa Credit Guarantee Facility; special infrastructure funds, such as the Africa50 fund under the African Development Bank; strategic sovereign wealth and stabilization funds; sovereign-backed pension funds; new models of public-private partnerships; Africa-owned bond markets, including diaspora bonds and infrastructure bonds; the promotion of Africa s private equity bonds; the securitization of remittances; and regional stock markets. 87. In a similar vein, in collaboration with the NEPAD Agency, UNDP and the African Union, ECA is actively supporting the capacity development mapping and scoping exercise being carried out by the regional economic communities. The purpose of the scoping and mapping initiative is to provide value-added practical and strategic guidance to the full roll-out of the African Union s multi-agency capacity development programme, which is designed to ensure a coordinated approach to capacity development in Africa. The scoping report was endorsed by the Assembly of the African Union at its twentysecond ordinary session in January Building on its successful work in support of the African Peer Review Mechanism, ECA continued to provide support to member States in various aspects of the process through country support missions and country review visits, including in the preparation of background documents, the drafting of country reports, the elaboration of national programmes of action, the mobilization of broader stakeholder participation and the fostering of peer learning among member countries of the Mechanism by identifying best practices in the Mechanism process and promoting their replication. The continued support provided by ECA to the African Peer Review Mechanism process has helped boost the capacity of member States to conduct the peer review and has enhanced the capacity of a range of stakeholders to engage in the process. 89. Thanks to support from ECA, in 2013 the number of countries that have acceded to the Mechanism increased from 31 to 33, with the accession of Chad and Tunisia, while the number of countries that have undergone peer review increased to 17 the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia were peer reviewed during the year. Assistance was also provided to Djibouti, Lesotho and Mozambique in the harmonization of the African Peer Review Mechanism national plan of action with their national development strategies and plans, while Senegal received support in the launch of the African Peer Review Mechanism process and the establishment of its national secretariat. 90. Also in support of the African Peer Review Mechanism and as part of the activities to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the African Union and tenth anniversary of the Mechanism itself, ECA collaborated with the Mechanism secretariat to produce an industrystandard video documentary on the Mechanism, showcasing Africa s governance achievements, challenges and prospects, as seen through the evolution of the African Peer Review Mechanism process since The film canvassed the opinions of ordinary Africans and explored the genesis and rationale of the Mechanism in order to broaden, deepen and promote a better understanding of the meaning and significance of its process. It also aimed to demonstrate that peer review is a comprehensive national dialogue that involves first and foremost the citizen, and not primarily a dialogue among African heads of State or government, or a selection of informed African experts, political leaders and senior government officials. The trailer of the documentary may be viewed at F. Technical cooperation 91. Technical cooperation remained an important supporting instrument for implementing the ECA core programme of work described in other sections of this report. Technical cooperation is the means by which ECA translates its research work into operational activities for development. Technical cooperation activities are carried out in support of the priorities of member States, with a particular focus on enhancing their capacity to formulate and implement policies and programmes for sustainable economic and social development and transformation, within the framework of the NEPAD programme and the African Union s Agenda Funding for ECA technical cooperation activities comes from the United Nations regular programme of technical cooperation, the United Nations Development Account and extrabudgetary resources negotiated with bilateral and multilateral donors. 92. During the period under review, funding from the regular programme of technical cooperation was used to respond to requests for short-term assis- 16

27 E/ECA/COE/33/11 tance from several countries to provide guidance on policy options, advice on strengthening institutional frameworks, support in relation to policy debates on new and emerging issues, and training to support capacity development in addressing critical development challenges in a wide range of areas that fall within the ECA priorities, including industrialization, natural resources management, development planning, statistics and macroeconomic policy analysis. As part of its efforts to promote policy change and strengthen institutional capacities in these areas, in 2013 and 2014 to date, ECA has fielded over 150 advisory missions to 42 countries and eight regional economic communities and organized 68 workshops and seminars involving over 1,000 participants. 93. The services rendered contributed in particular to the enhancement of knowledge, skills, institutional capabilities and policymaking abilities as part of the capacity development process implemented by ECA, which transferred knowledge through its technical cooperation initiatives. Programme activities, although of a small-scale nature, often resulted in a multiplier effect as a result of the mobilization of extrabudgetary resources and the complementary use of United Nations Development Account resources to respond to larger-scale needs. The programme was an integral part of the collective efforts of ECA divisions and subregional offices coordinated by the Capacity Development Division. It should, therefore, be noted in this regard that the results achieved under the programme of technical cooperation contributed to the results reported under the regular programme of work of the various ECA subprogrammes. G. Gender and women in development 94. Under this subprogramme, ECA aims to promote gender equality and women s empowerment in the context of international and regional commitments. 95. During the period under review, significant progress was made in building and enhancing the capacity of member States to integrate gender concerns into policies and programmes, using the tools developed under the subprogramme. Those tools include the African gender and development index, which has been well received and widely used in the countries that have collected data; knowledge platforms, including the African Women s Rights Observatory and the e-network of National Gender Machineries in Africa, providing a facility for member States to engage with one another through online discussion and to share information and best practices; the work on gender statistics, including time use studies and support for statistical offices; guidelines on the collection and dissemination of gender statistics; the technical advisory services to member States, providing hands-on support and high-level expertise, especially in the use of the tools that the Division has developed for policy development; and the strengthening of existing and forging of new partnerships. 96. The work on gender statistics entailed a comprehensive review to assess the capacity of selected countries, namely Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Ethiopia, Tunisia and Zambia, in collecting, analysing and reporting on gender statistics and sex disaggregated data at the country level. This provided evidence for the current efforts to mainstream gender within sectoral ministries, as well as within the work of ECA. This will also inform the capacity building programme for national statistical systems, to be undertaken in partnership with the ECA African Centre for Statistics. 97. As a follow up to the implementation of the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, the subprogramme developed a strategy to assist member States to implement the seven strategic areas of focus identified in the outcome of the eighth African Regional Conference on Women, held in Banjul in Based on responses to a questionnaire circulated to all member States, 31 of which responded, 11 significant progress has been made in five of the seven strategic focus areas, with more required in the other two climate change and food security, and financing for gender equality. The assessment report was presented to the Committee on Women in Development at its eighth session, which took place in Addis Ababa in November The Committee underscored and applauded the crucial role played by ECA as a one-stop shop for continentwide statistics, and emphasized the need for the Commission to strengthen its production of age, gender and sex-disaggregated data, including time-use data, 11 The 31 countries are: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 17

28 Annual Report, 2014 and to develop guidelines for the production of national gender profiles. 98. A study was undertaken jointly with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) during the reporting period to determine the social and economic costs of violence against women in Africa. The report uses a two-pronged approach: secondary research into violence against women in Africa and in depth empirical research in seven selected countries, namely, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Liberia, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique and Uganda, to document such violence and estimate its social and economic costs. The report highlights the indicative social and economic costs of violence against women as ranging from 0.03 to 1.7 per cent of GDP in the selected countries. The report also suggests that violence against women, and in particular its most prevalent form of intimate partner violence, is persistent and pervasive in Africa. Not only is it a serious form of violation of women s rights, it also has social and economic costs for the victims themselves, the African economy and society as a whole. The report makes recommendations and provides a number of policy options and programmes for policy makers to address this growing problem in Africa. 99. The work on the development and implementation of the African gender and development index entered a second phase during the reporting period, with 14 additional country studies undertaken (Botswana, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Congo, Côte d Ivoire, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, Togo and Zambia), the output of which were synthesized into a regional report. The report notes that systematic social and cultural barriers continue to limit the capacity of member States to put in place legislative, policy and institutional changes to promote gender equality and women s empowerment. It also highlights efforts by member States to start integrating the index into their national development planning processes. For example, the Gambia is using recommendations from its study on the African gender and development index to strengthen the work of the sectoral ministries on gender, while Malawi has used indicators from the index to contribute to the gender dimensions of its growth and development strategy. Zambia has included indicators from the index in its national monitoring and evaluation strategy. This brings to 27 the number of countries covered by the African gender and development index since its inception Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Tunisia, 100. In 2013, a report was prepared under the subprogramme on time-use surveys in Africa, providing an assessment and policy recommendations and measuring the status of implementation of time-use surveys in Africa since the adoption of the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women in The report discusses the extent to which time-use statistics have been used in estimating and understanding unpaid work and in informing the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of gender-responsive policies, and identifies the challenges encountered by countries in undertaking time-use surveys. It concludes that the time-use work pattern in African countries that have undertaken time-use surveys is highly gender-sensitive, with men tending to spend more time than women in market production, while women tend to spend more time than men on unpaid household production. The findings will be used in the biennium to inform member States on the use of time use studies and how to use them in their policymaking The women s human rights component of the subprogramme s work has continued to provide evidence to member States on the importance of addressing the rights of women. In this context, Zambia is currently developing a database on women involved in informal cross-border trade, to support the monitoring of violence against women. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has established a one-stop border trading post to reduce the risk of violence against women traders, which is planned for replication in other subregions. A study on the human rights of women, reviewing violence against women in informal cross-border trade in Africa, has been undertaken to build a knowledge base on the forms and magnitude of the violence faced by women in the course of their informal crossborder trading activities, and to highlight the policy options available to member States in combating this phenomenon The online discussion on strengthening advocacy in promoting the role of national gender machineries, held in 2013, renewed dialogue on the approaches taken to mainstream gender into national policies, including advocacy strategies to raise awareness and secure the buy-in of sectoral ministries. Several member States have indicated that they find the online discussion a useful forum for sharing their experience and achievements to date and exploring the challenges that lie ahead in ensuring an effective strategy that will promote gender equality and women s empowerment in Africa. ECA plans to inte- United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda were covered in the first phase. 18

29 E/ECA/COE/33/11 grate the e-network and the African Women s Rights Observatory into the solution exchange platform for Africa currently being developed to streamline outreach to member States and facilitate the sharing of information and best practices A report on the gender-related dimensions of climate change, produced jointly by the African Centre for Gender and Development and the African Climate Change Policy Centre, highlighted the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change on men, women, boys and girls as a result of disparity in the access to, ownership of and benefits from productive resources. The report proposed a series of gender responsive measures to addressing climate change in Africa, underpinned by a human rights and multisectoral approach, including gender mainstreaming in national climate change policies, the harnessing of local knowledge in climate change adaptation and mitigation, and financing for climate change. The need for collaborative partnerships with the World Centre for Sustainable Development, launched in follow-up to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), and with other key stakeholders was also underscored. The work in this area is helping to build a body of knowledge on gender and climate change During the year under review, technical advisory services were provided, upon request, to several departments of the Government of South Africa in the use of the African gender and development index, paving the way for the country to undertake the second phase of the index using its own resources. Similarly, the Government of Botswana received technical assistance in building and strengthening its capacity to integrate gender concerns into public finance and budget processes. Under the subprogramme technical support was also provided to the Government of Togo in integrating and aligning the African gender and development index with the country s growth and development strategy Significant results were also achieved in the area of capacity development, in partnership with the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), for mainstreaming gender in national development policies and programmes to promote gender equality. Over 20 middle-level and senior policymakers 13 from national statistical offices and ministries of economic planning, employment, finance, 13 In all, 24 policymakers 17 women and 7 men attended, from Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Côte d Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia. gender and social affairs from 17 French-speaking African countries were equipped with the tools, methodologies and skills to integrate gender into social and economic policymaking and in the public finance processes necessary to achieve inclusive, equitable and sustainable development During the eighth session of the Committee on Women and Development, held in November 2013 in Addis Ababa, member States indicated that the knowledge platform developed and maintained by ECA is useful in sharing best practices and learning from other member States. Under the subprogramme two electronic tools are maintained that are designed both to analyse the major existing challenges and to propose solutions relating to gaps in data availability and their use in member States. These are the African Women s Rights Observatory and the e-network of National Gender Machineries in Africa. The subprogramme organized a capacity development workshop on the two electronic tools in July 2013, which was attended by representatives of gender ministries from 22 countries. In their feedback, 85 per cent of the workshop participants commended the workshop on its quality and relevance to their work. H. Subregional activities for development 107. During the year under review, consistent with their mandate, the ECA subregional offices (for North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, Eastern Africa and Southern Africa) continued to assist member States, regional economic communities and other subregional intergovernmental organizations in strengthening their capacity to formulate and harmonize evidence-based policies and plans in support of economic and social transformation and regional integration at the subregional level. This was accomplished through research and analytical work, the convening of expert meetings and forums and the provision of advisory services The subregional offices have worked towards this objective by strengthening their partnerships with the major regional economic communities in their respective subregions, including the Arab Maghreb Union, SADC, the East African Community, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). 19

30 Annual Report, 2014 Concept note on ECA Country Profiles 109. During the period under review, the subregional offices continued to enhance the support that they provided to member States and regional economic communities in strengthening their capacity to formulate and implement harmonized macroeconomic and sectoral policies and programmes in the areas of trade, infrastructure, human capacity development, gender mainstreaming, agriculture and food security. To this end, they organized and serviced a range of meetings and workshops, including the annual session of their respective intergovernmental committees of experts; participated in the meetings of the policy organs of the major regional economic communities; and provided technical assistance, upon request, to member States, regional economic communities and other intergovernmental organizations on institutional and sectoral issues in support of integration efforts. The subregional offices also continued to operate as subregional nodes for data collection, knowledge management and networking to strengthen the outreach work of ECA The subregional offices also compiled and disseminated reports and studies on various economic and social issues, which were submitted to the intergovernmental committees of experts. In addition, they continued to enhance their collaboration with other United Nations agencies and increased their participation in the activities of the United Nations country teams in support of the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals. In addition, the subregional offices have made progress in enhancing the coordination of United Nations activities at the subregional level, in line with the mandate given to them by RCM Africa, including implementation of the joint activities agreed upon by the thematic clusters at the subregional level During 2013, arrangements were completed for the launch and operationalization of the country profiles, new ECA flagship publications. A number of internal and external brainstorming meetings and consultations were held in 2013 to explore the main underpinnings that will guide the preparation of the country profiles. An internal brainstorming meeting was convened in Rabat in November 2013 to define such issues as the objectives, proposed scope, content and structure, indicators and areas of focus; data template; periodicity and length; responsibilities of subregional offices and relevant divisions; partnerships to be formed with member States and external organizations; resource requirements for the ECA country profiles; and country coverage over the coming biennium The country profiles will provide data, institutional and policy information, along with forecasts, indicators, policy and risk analysis and recommendations on key social and economic variables. The profiles will serve a number of clients, ranging from member States to academics, policymakers, civil society representatives, analysts and investors from within and outside Africa. Profiles will be prepared at regional and continental levels (such as the Economic Report on Africa) with medium-term forecasts, risk analysis and improved periodicity (annual, biannual or quarterly) While several other country profiles are currently in circulation, it is envisaged that the ECA country profiles will add value by providing timely policy analysis and forecasts from an African perspective, in addition to tracking forecasts by others on Africa and providing information on the central theme of economic and structural transformation in member States. Moreover, in the process of preparing the country profiles, the primary and secondary data collected can be accessed through the ECA database, for the purpose of additional policy analysis on Africa by a wide range of data users. Following the Rabat meeting, a concept paper and template have been prepared as a new contribution by ECA and as part of the country profile consultation and validation process. These will be presented to the Committee of Experts of the Conference of Ministers at its meeting in Abuja in March 2014, in order to get the experts feedback The following sections highlight some of the results achieved by each subregional office in the other areas of their work. 1. Subregional Office for North Africa 115. In order to help raise awareness on the economic and social development status of North Africa, and also to contribute to the debate on policy options and 20

31 E/ECA/COE/33/11 strategies that address the development challenges of the subregion, the Subregional Office for North Africa organized expert group meetings, workshops and advisory missions. In this way, the subregional office contributed to the formulation of policies by encouraging agreement among member States on the need to implement the key measures in the areas of interest for the subregion, which include social protection reforms, good governance, the agricultural strategy for 2030, climate change and food security, green economy, trade and regional integration, and economic structural diversification The subregional office carried out technical advisory missions to Algeria and Mauritania in collaboration with United Nations country teams. In addition, it conducted a feasibility study on employment offices in Mauritania, at the behest of the Government. The study defined the status and the specific overall missions of employment agencies, and provided a coherent institutional and integrated legal framework for their effective establishment and operation, well adapted to the specificities of the Mauritanian labour market. In Algeria, the subregional office provided technical advice on social and economic governance to Notre Algérie Bâtie sur de Nouvelles Idées (NABNI), a coalition of Algerian civil society organizations, in preparation for Algeria s 2020 report In collaboration with intergovernmental organizations and the Arab Maghreb Union, the Subregional Office for North Africa held two important consultative meetings, on regional integration and on the theme of the eighth African Development Forum, Governing and harnessing natural resources for Africa s development. It established and operationalized a consultative mechanism with all key regional actors involved in the integration process, whereby ideas were exchanged, and priority areas for intervention identified and analysed, for the economic transformation of the Maghreb. In the specific area of climate change, the subregional office, in cooperation with the African Climate Policy Centre and the Arab Maghreb Union, contributed to the establishment of a subregional framework for action and cooperation, which will serve as a guiding tool for the elaboration of the climate change adaptation strategy for the Maghreb In addition, the subregional office collaborated with ECE in conducting an environmental performance review of Morocco, and facilitated collaboration between Mauritania, Morocco and the UNDP office in Nouakchott in assisting the Mauritanian Ministry of Planning in its efforts to build an integrated social account matrix The Subregional Office for North Africa also organized the North African Development Forum on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, to debate the prospects for long-term development in Africa as a whole, and the subregion in particular; and to develop a strategic vision for North Africa on Agenda The subregional office widened its network and strengthened its impact at the country level by contributing to the activities of the United Nations country team in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. In Tunisia, it prepared and mobilized the country officials, the United Nations country team and other key stakeholders for the drafting of the national United Nations development assistance framework for the period This process helped identify and assess current United Nations system capacities (programmatic and non-programmatic), key needs in the country, and areas where the United Nations system can make an impact. In Morocco, the subregional office continues to work with the different United Nations thematic groups (youth, migration, gender, governance, the Millennium Development Goals and others) At the subregional level, the Subregional Office for North Africa is part of the United Nations review of the International Conference on Population and Development programme of action (ICPD Beyond 2014), and is also working closely, within the Inter- Agency Steering Committee on ICPD Beyond 2014, with the UNFPA Regional Office for the Arab States, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the League of Arab States. In collaboration with the United Nations country team, it is assisting North African countries with the national assessment of the progress made in implementing the ICPD programme of action. 2. Subregional Office for West Africa 122. The Subregional Office for West Africa strengthened the relationships between West African intergovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies working at the regional level in West Africa, and also enhanced the capacity of ECOWAS and member States in harmonized data management, in support of ongoing regional integration efforts The subregional office has been instrumental in promoting the Delivering as one initiative. It facilitated close collaboration between itself and a number of United Nations agencies at the regional level in the context of the subregional consultation mechanism for 21

32 Annual Report, 2014 the support of the United Nations system to the African Union and specifically to NEPAD. To that effect, a meeting was organized in Dakar in November 2013, the outcome of which was a road map established for the operationalization of the subregional consultation mechanism, including a set of development programmes which will be fed in the cooperation plan. A number of thematic areas were identified: governance, peace and security and humanitarian actions; economic integration and development of infrastructure; human development and gender; agriculture, food security, water and environment; and development of the private sector, industry and mines The subregional office enhanced the capacity of the national statistical systems of the ECOWAS subregion to compile and make available information on the countries economic and social conditions and to monitor the regional integration process through the deployment of the Ecobase prototype database. The subregional office facilitated the training conducted on the use and maintenance of the Ecobase platform, thereby increasing the readiness level of ECOWAS in the areas of data set maintenance and data analysis. 3. Subregional Office for Central Africa 125. In 2013, the Subregional Office for Central Africa produced four country profiles, on Cameroon, the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon During the reporting period, the subregional office also produced five reports for the twentyninth session of its Intergovernmental Committee of Experts, focused on Central Africa s economic state, the stakes and challenges of the green economy, progress in the use of information and communications technology for development, the implementation status of international development agendas, notably the Millennium Development Goals and NEPAD, and the subregional office s annual report. Based on the findings and recommendations of the subregional office, the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts strongly recommended that member States should push for a broad-based structural transformation of their economies through the development of agroindustry, transport infrastructure, an improved business climate and open market access The subregional office produced its regular policy advisory report, The Economies of Central Africa, which emphasized the need for countries in the subregion to speed up their transition to green economies alongside their complete structural transformation. A report on the harmonization of laws in the area of information and communications technology related to cyber security was also produced, reflecting the high compliance rate of the subregion with the African Union s draft legislation on the issue. A report focusing on the rationalization of market integration tools in CEMAC and ECCAS also featured on the publication list for the year, in addition to four editions of the subregional office s bilingual quarterly newsletter Echos d Afrique Centrale, a synopsis of the operationalization of compensatory funds in Central Africa, and a brochure on gender education and the culture of peace in the subregion The major activity by the Subregional Office for Central Africa in 2013 in support of regional integration priorities included the organization of the third regional integration forum on the free movement of persons and right of establishment in Central Africa, held in Douala in October The subregional office played an important role in the decision of Heads of State of all CEMAC countries to allow complete free movement of citizens across all countries within the zone from January The Subregional Office for Central Africa provided advisory services to Gabon, in particular the country s national industry forum, in its undertaking to devise strategies for an Emergent Gabon. It also played a crucial role in the institutional audit of the International Commission for the Congo-Oubangui- Sangha Basin Where intra-united Nations cooperation is concerned, the subregional office spearheaded the subregional coordination mechanism in support of the NEPAD programme in Central Africa, which led to the implementation of a first common indicative programme from 2010 to 2012, and the adoption in 2013 of a second such programme, for implementation from 2013 to Subregional Office for Eastern Africa 131. The Subregional Office for Eastern Africa produced country profiles for five pilot countries, namely the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. Under this new workstream, it is planned to provide institutional and policy information, together with forecasts, policy and risk analysis and recommendations on potential destinations of investments in and outside Africa. 22

33 E/ECA/COE/33/ The subregional office provided advisory services to the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), on the development of tourism in Eastern Africa, by formulating a sustainable tourism master plan. The master plan, which was officially launched in Nairobi in December 2013, now informs the development of country specific tourism strategies, tools, and policy analysis and data collection in selected member States The subregional office took steps to enhance the capacity of the central and local governments in Rwanda in the area of budget planning, by providing training to their relevant institutions and to a technical team from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning on gender responsive budgeting, which included courses on the principles, processes, analysis and monitoring of such budgeting, the analysis of gender budget statements, and the mainstreaming of gender in donor support. In addition, the subregional office delivered training on the application of modern econometric and modelling techniques to 15 officials from the central banks of the five member States of the East African Community. The training was aimed at strengthening their macroeconomic forecasting and modelling skills and was of particular relevance, as the central banks in the countries of the East African Community will play a critical role in overseeing the macroeconomic convergence criteria that will frame the monetary union of the East African Community The subregional office held a workshop on the cross border transaction and conditions of women, exposing the challenges that women traders face in accessing loans and other bank facilities to expand their businesses. Participants urged the different stakeholders concerned, in particular immigration, tax bodies, financial institutions and security organs, to collaborate in removing these challenges The subregional office launched the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Least Developed Countries Report 2013 in Kigali in November During the launch, a round table discussion was also held on the linkages between investment, growth, employment and regional integration in the subregion. The round table brought together senior government economists, academics and representatives of the local and regional media. In addition, and in coordination with the ECA Regional Integration, Trade and Infrastructure Division, the subregional office reviewed and presented the COMESA reports on the maize and livestock value chains at a workshop held in April 2013 in Johannesburg The subregional office played a leadership role at the subregional level in the formulation of the business plan for the subregional coordination mechanism for Eastern and Southern Africa. Together with the Subregional Office for Southern Africa, the Subregional Office for East Africa spearheaded efforts by the regional economic communities, intergovernmental organizations, United Nations agencies and other development partners operating in Eastern and Southern Africa to identify opportunities to work together in a coordinated manner with a view to widening the scale of their operation and thereby maximizing their impact. The results of this two-year intensive facilitation and consultative process culminated in the adoption of the subregional coordination mechanism for Eastern and Southern Africa. 5. Subregional Office for Southern Africa 137. The Subregional Office for Southern Africa undertook a study on harnessing natural resources for sustainable development in Southern Africa, considering the opportunities and challenges in the tourism sector, which was reviewed at an expert meeting held in February 2014 in Port Louis, Mauritius. The report puts forward a number of policy recommendations for the advancement of the tourism sector in the SADC member States, including the need for harmonization of regulatory frameworks, quality standards, human resources development, infrastructure development and investment for the tourism sector, and marketing The subregional office convened an expert group meeting on policy harmonization and the implementation of the SADC Protocol on Trade, with a specific focus on intellectual property in the SADC region. The meeting, organized in collaboration with the SADC secretariat and held in Gaborone in December 2013, reviewed and validated the findings of a study on opportunities and challenges in using intellectual property systems to strengthen regional cooperation through policy harmonization in the SADC region In collaboration with other stakeholders and partners, the subregional office continued to provide technical support and advisory services for the development of a policy and legal framework, including for the minerals and mining policy of Lesotho, and, in collaboration with the African Centre for Statistics, provided advisory services to the Zambian Central Statistical Office in the form of a workshop on national gender statistics. The main objectives of the workshop were to familiarize programme officials with the fundamental requirements in the produc- 23

34 Annual Report, 2014 tion of gender statistics and to build their capacity in carrying out assessments on progress in this field. The subregional office also conducted a workshop on strengthening intraregional agricultural trade in Southern Africa, in Benoni, South Africa, in October The workshop was organized in collaboration with the COMESA Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa, SADC and the Africa Trade Policy Centre. Participants discussed issues, challenges and constraints faced by SADC countries in enhancing intraregional food and agricultural trade. It provided a forum at which stakeholders could make recommendations about how to remove impediments to agricultural trade, particularly non-tariff barriers, and to increase intraregional trade for growth, food security and poverty alleviation In collaboration with the SADC secretariat, the subregional office organized the SADC cybersecurity awareness workshop, held in Lusaka in November The workshop provided a forum for reviewing the status of cyberlaws and existing structures set up to fight cybercrime in the subregion In collaboration with the African Peer Review Mechanism secretariat, the subregional office organized a forum on promoting the African Peer Review Mechanism codes and standards on corporate governance in Southern Africa, in November 2013 in Johannesburg. Among other aims, this special event sought to review and take stock of the corporate governance status, regimes and environment in Southern African member States and to review the implementation of the adopted corporate governance instruments, frameworks and mechanisms in the subregion In conjunction with COMESA, the subregional office organized a workshop on strengthening inclusive growth in the East and Southern African region, in Gaborone in December 2013, which focused on identifying issues, challenges and constraints faced by COMESA countries in promoting sustainable growth that was broad-based across sectors and inclusive of larger segments of the labour force, especially the poor. Participants at the workshop brainstormed and made recommendations on the content, focus and approach of the COMESA inclusive growth strategy and of the forthcoming related study on the inclusive growth situational analysis in the region. I. Development planning and administration 143. The year 2013 was very important in the history of IDEP for many reasons. It marked the year in which the Institute s interface with the overall programmatic strategy of ECA was carried to a new level that promised to revolutionize its operations for the benefit of its member States. In addition to the Institute s prescribed role as the entity responsible for ECA subprogramme 8, on development planning and administration matters, with effect from 1 March 2013, it was formally designated as the training arm of the Commission within the overall ambit of the 2012 ECA reform agenda. In this new, enhanced role, the Institute came to assume responsibility for all the Commission s training initiatives, combining these with its own existing initiatives, as mandated by the member States and the IDEP Governing Council. Close collaboration was also maintained by the Institute with the African Union Commission through various training activities carried out for the benefit of its member States and professional staff. Similarly, training activities that fell within the overarching programmatic orientation of the Institute were carried out on a tailor-made basis in collaboration with the African Development Bank and a number of beneficiary African countries Key milestones attained in include 100 per cent programme implementation for the biennium and a significant expansion in the number and diversity of training activities, including short-term courses and demand-driven tailormade courses offered to member States. Furthermore, the Institute s complementary policy research and dialogue activities attained new levels of significance as attested by the high level of subscription and participation that they attracted During the year, a total of 37 short courses were organized by the Institute, both at its headquarters in Dakar and at other locations across Africa. This is the largest number of short courses ever organized by IDEP in any one year. The courses benefited a total of 758 mid-career and senior officials from 48 African countries representing all five subregions of the continent. The 758 officials who participated in the Institution s training courses represented 42 per cent of the 1,822 applications and nominations received and processed during the year, suggesting huge interest in the programmes of the Institute Furthermore, the participation of female officials in the training programmes of the Institute continued to receive close attention. During 2013, a total of 252 female officials were admitted to various short courses organized by the Institute. They represented 33 per cent of the trainees admitted for the year, a percentage which tallied roughly with the total number of applications received from female candidates for all 24

35 E/ECA/COE/33/11 the courses which the Institute announced in Almost all the officials admitted to the short courses were awarded full scholarships by the Institute to facilitate their participation The overwhelming majority of the officials who benefited from the courses 98 per cent were 50 years old or under, meaning that they would still have many years of a professional career ahead of them to be able to apply the knowledge, skills and aptitudes acquired at IDEP to their work. As a result of IDEP training programmes, beneficiary countries were able to design new national planning institutional architectures; adopt new approaches, dimensions, and instruments of development planning; launch new initiatives in interministerial planning and policy coordination; carry out new programmes in the area of decentralized and local planning; and update the skills and knowledge of their officials Within the overall ambit of the Institute s mandate on development planning and administration, and as part of the effort to support the efforts of African countries to drive an agenda of structural transformation, during 2013 IDEP undertook a major overhaul of its training and capacity development programmes. It was aided in this effort by its formal designation from 1 March 2013 onwards as the official training arm of ECA. In this role, and taking a cue from the new structural transformation agenda of ECA, the Institute introduced a set of new short courses that were mostly delivered on a pan-african scale. As a result, in 2013 IDEP attained not just the most significant expansion in the number of short courses in its history but also the broadest diversity of themes registered to date. Underpinning all the courses, and providing them with the coherence and synergy needed to make them elements of a holistic programming schedule, was the desire to offer training in thematic and sectoral domains that responded to the imperatives of planning and development management in an emergent context of structural transformation. The key themes covered by the short courses included trade policy, trade negotiations, trade statistics, bankable aid for trade programming, regional cooperation and integration, agricultural policy, agricultural value chains and food security, social policy for development planners, industrial policy, statistical and data analyses, macroeconomic modelling, gender budgeting, gender-responsive economic policy management, development policy monitoring and evaluation, development planning, regional and physical planning, strategic planning, debt management, mining policy, mining contract negotiations, migration, diasporas and development, tools and techniques of economic analysis, and energy efficiency investment planning. All the courses were delivered in English and French, and on occasion, where officials from different linguistic backgrounds were brought together under the same roof, with simultaneous interpretation and real-time translation services During 2013, arrangements were completed for the launching of three new course components within the revamped IDEP masters degree programme: on development planning, industrial policy, and infrastructure development. IDEP is co-hosting the postgraduate degree programme on development planning with the Institute of National Planning in Cairo. The programme on industrial policy is being co-hosted with the University of Johannesburg, while the component on infrastructure development is being co-hosted with the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar. All the processes connected to course structure and duration, module development, course accreditation with the relevant authorities and the recruitment of course instructors were completed during 2013 and the stage was set for the official launching of the initiatives in Up to 25 officials are to be admitted into each of the courses in Along with the three masters degree programmes, advanced discussions were held during 2013 on new joint masters degrees in trade policy and development with the University of Nairobi and the University of Port Harcourt, energy policy with the University of Ibadan and Casablanca University, and mineral policy with the University of Johannesburg As in previous years, the IDEP monthly development seminars hosted at the Institute s headquarters in Dakar continued to serve as a key forum for lively debates on the development experiences and trajectories of the African continent. Each monthly development seminar attracted an average of 50 participants, and among some of the topics that were addressed and which attracted the greatest interest were the governance of development, the migration-development nexus, social policy in a development context, and new directions in engendering development. Within 25

36 Annual Report, 2014 the ambit of the IDEP fellowship programme, a total of five fellows were hosted at the Institute during They came from Burkina Faso, Côte d Ivoire, Mali and Senegal. The topics that they covered during the tenure of their fellowship included land reform in a post-conflict context, development monitoring and evaluation, and trade and investment policy During 2013 the Institute also developed an inventory of social protection and social policy practices among African countries. The project was launched at the behest of the African Union Conference of Ministers Responsible for Social Development, which requested the inventory at its third session in November The inventory is designed to feed into the operationalization of the pan-african social policy framework. Similarly, a desk study was commissioned by the Institute to examine the place of gender in the national development plans that African countries have adopted in recent years. The study was carried out as a joint partnership between the Institute and UN-Women The significant growth in IDEP programmes and the expansion of the Institute s presence and reach occurred within the context of major investments that began in 2012 and were carried over into 2013 in the environment and infrastructure of learning that it offers to course participants. Today, IDEP boasts state-of-the-art training and research facilities, including new simultaneous interpretation equipment for multilingual sessions and interactive electronic teaching boards. The Institute s programme expansion and reach throughout 2013 were accompanied by an across-the-board revamping of course modules with a view to further improving the quality and relevance of courses. Partnerships were also accelerated by the Institute across the continent for the decentralized delivery of its programmes beyond its headquarters in Dakar While consolidating the achievements of 2013, the Institute is also pursuing new opportunities for extending its reach, depth, scale and presence, towards the goal of securing the place of the Institute over the long term as an apex institution in the overall project of African development. To this end, a new knowledge management dimension is being built into the work of the Institute and e-learning activities will be launched in As part of efforts to reposition the IDEP library, steps were taken during 2013 to begin to make the library s documentary resources available online. To date, 18,000 documents have been processed and put online, and the Library has launched a course module on library and online research methods for officials admitted to various training and policy research programmes at the Institute. As part of the new initiatives, tracer studies of IDEP training alumni will be carried out and greater emphasis will be placed on creating post-training follow-up activities for those who pass through the programmes of the Institute at any point in time To underpin the enhanced mandate of the Institute following its designation as the training arm of ECA, and in view of the expanding programmatic links between IDEP, the African Union Commission and other partners, steps were taken in the course of 2013 to boost the Institute s human and financial resources. These took the form of an enhanced annual grant from the United Nations, which was reported to the Conference of Ministers in 2012 and which came into effect in January of that year; a special annual training allocation from ECA starting from 2013; the annual assessed contributions of member States; and extrabudgetary resources mobilized from various sources. In addition, staffing levels at IDEP were increased and greater investments made in technology. J. Social development 155. During , sound progress was made under the social development subprogramme towards its objective of promoting inclusive and equitable sustainable human and social development in line with internationally and regionally agreed commitments and frameworks. Work was successfully accomplished on social issues through policy research, the generation of knowledge products, training and capacity development, the provision of technical advisory services and the review of the implementation of internationally agreed commitments on social development Through the subprogramme s effective support for the implementation of the ICPD programme of action (ICPD Beyond 2014), considerable progress has been made by member States in implementing at least a policy, a programme, a strategy or a combination of the three instruments on population, youth, migration, gender, ageing and sexual, reproductive and adolescent health. The ICPD Beyond 2014 regional review revealed that 52 countries that participated in the review have implemented national policies, programmes and strategies explicitly addressing the interaction between population and sustainable development. Member States continued to call upon ECA to support them in developing strategies and reformulating their population policies. 26

37 E/ECA/COE/33/ During 2013, the subprogramme s work on youth continued to focus on supporting the implementation of the recommendations on the issue of youth employment, adopted by Assembly of the African Union at its seventeenth ordinary session, held in Malabo in June July Under the subprogramme, policy research was launched in selected countries on the issue of the creative economy as a development pathway for youth employment. The main recommendation emanating from the report was for ECA to establish a creative economy initiative in Africa, which would help countries collect data and share experiences that could be used for informed policymaking and decision making. Cabo Verde has taken the lead in embracing creative activities and has requested technical assistance from ECA in developing the initiative further. The subprogramme has prioritized the issue of high youth unemployment in Africa through a number of analytical studies, projects and technical support to member States. It provided technical assistance to the Government of Senegal in developing a national action plan on youth employment. Further requests have come from the 35 member States that attended the experts meeting of the Committee on Human and Social Development. Owing to resource constraints, responses to the requests will be taken up on a first -come, first served basis, starting with Malawi, Togo and Uganda The subprogramme has hosted young African professionals as interns and research assistants to undertake research and acquire skills in social development. These young African professionals are currently working on employment, the cost of hunger, social protection, and urbanization issues In the area of international migration, technical support has been provided under the subprogramme to the Global Forum on Migration and Development processes, through policy research and the drafting of a statement as an input to the 2013 High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development African countries need continuously to invest in human capital. In this regard, the joint initiative of the African Union Commission, the World Food Programme and ECA on the cost of hunger in Africa has been used to engage stakeholders in addressing child nutrition as a priority for the continent. The methodological basis adopted in the studies carried out under this initiative could be applied across a range of poverty correlates, to provide a better understanding of the consequences of conditions such as illiteracy and unemployment on the intergenerational transfer of poverty. Studies have been completed in Egypt, Ethiopia, Swaziland and Uganda and are under way in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi and Rwanda. ECA will support the African Renewed Initiative on Stunting Elimination (ARISE) proposed by the African Union Commission as a mechanism to help member States eliminate stunting Consultations were organized under the subprogramme with experts and stakeholders working on urbanization in Africa to guide work by the Commission and to determine its niche in this area. The resulting recommendations are designed to support the statistical, social and economic dimensions of urbanization and identify the policy gaps in that domain. The role of ECA in bridging statistical and knowledge gaps is critical, especially at the regional level. This activity will bring coherence and ensure that urbanization issues are adequately mainstreamed in ECA social development policy activities Under the subprogramme, and in collaboration with IDEP, senior policymakers from member States are being trained, and a technical tool the Africa social development index developed, to respond to the challenges of exclusion and inequities in access to social services in member States. The index will provide member States with an effective and practical mechanism for informing social development policy. 14 The decision adopted by the Heads of State undertook to reduce youth unemployment by 2 per cent over a period of five years from